NCAA tournament: What happened to the Big East on Day 1?

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Ohio had no shot to beat Georgetown. Robert Morris had no shot to beat Villanova.

Why would you think otherwise?

Georgetown was a Da’Sean Butler game-winning jumper away from winning the Big East tournament title over West Virginia. The Hoyas have wins over a pair of No. 1 seeds (Syracuse and Duke) on their résumé.

What does Ohio have? Well, the Bobcats finished with a losing record in the MAC (7-9) and were the ninth seed in the conference tournament, had to go to Ball State and win in overtime in a first-round league tourney game to even get to the real deal in Cleveland, where the Bobcats had to knock off league favorites Kent State and Akron.

Meanwhile, Robert Morris did win the Northeast Conference with a road win at Quinnipiac in the tournament title game (and the two schools tied for the conference’s best regular-season record at 15-3). But this is the NEC, where guaranteed, one-way games against high-majors are the norm.